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Nick's Plan
= Norms = These will form the foundation of all classroom management. They must applicable to a variety of contexts, yet clear and memorable to a 5-7 year old. At the start of the year, I'll try to create such rules with ''the students. Allowing students to play a role in their creation will make these rules more personal and meaningful. Further, getting students to actually sign their names agreeing to follow these rules will affirm individual commitment (which can be referred to when needed). With that in mind, '''first, I will steer this initial conversation in the direction of...' * respect, for ourselves and each other * trying our bests And potentially one or two additional ideas. But these 2 cover essential procedural and intellectual management needs. Next, we'll write these on a poster and sign it as a class. This will allow easy reference for the rest of the year and create a positive sense of obligation in the students. Finally, 'I'll display the poster in the room to act as the bedrock of our class's culture. Additionally, I'll now introduce our classroom management system -- a point system, either divided by group or individual. This will be the direct motivator for adhering to these norms. = Procedures = Procedures and routines benefit everyone, and especially young learners who require regularity to focus on their unique daily tasks (the fewer off-lesson things they think about, the better). Our class's procedures will focus on how to do their work. Providing students with clear routines will allow them to focus completely on the tasks at hand. These procedures will include... * what to do when uncertain: "Ask 3 before me" to encourage resourcefulness, peer-support, and avoid clogging up the teacher * what to do when work is complete: Check, check, and check again, then either turn it in at the assigned spot, expand upon it (eg with drawing, adding items), or read quietly * how to handle individual needs: eg, Ask to use the bathroom pass if its available, then fill it out. * how to end an activity/the whole day: Reflection, Cleaning up. Also covered by procedures are types of tasks that we'll repeatedly do throughout the year, eg, composition or assessments. After doing these a few times early in the year, students will, for example, expect to peer-edit and revise their writing at the outset of every new assignment. = Transition Plan = As part of orientation at the start of the year, we'll review how to transition between activities and classes. These transitions will be explained in the context of the norms we agreed to earlier: respecting each other and trying our best. ''Is talking in the hall respecting the other classes? Can we try our best if we take too long getting to class? Further, I'll introduce groups and transition roles at this point. Segmenting students will help to control transitions (as opposed to every student at once), and roles will create a peer-enforced dynamic to transitions as well as instill a sense of ownership for transition success. = Expectations = The agreed-upon norms will act as the foundation for our class expectations overall. But for specific assignments or situations, it will be important to offer students clear examples and counter-examples of what is expected of them. '''For assignments '''this may take the form of physical examples of the work, eg, a nicely done assignment and a poorly done assignment. '''For behavior this may be accomplished through role-playing. After reviewing the expectations, students can physically act out proper behavior and improper behavior. Both of these strategies allow students to actually see the hitherto abstract ideals. Acting it out takes this a step further and lets them ''become ''the expectations: both the good, and, in a sort of Dionysian pantomime, the bad.